Low-income couples with children and single parents will bear the brunt of the Abbott Government's first budget, losing up to 15 per cent of their disposable income when the measures hit in full, according to independent modelling.

The findings from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) at Canberra University stand in contrast to the Government's insistence that the budget is "fair" and "shares the burden".

NATSEM principal research fellow Ben Phillips has studied the effects of the budget and says it is "not fair at all".

In this update: Police have raided nearly fifty properties and arrested more than twenty people in a major operation targetting an alleged organised crime syndicate. The United States has joined the European Union in imposing sanctions against Russia. A federal Labor backbencher is call for the Assistant Treasurer to stand aside for a corruption hearing and mining magnate Andrew Forrest has lauched a global inter-faith organisation to end slavery.